Objectives

OBJECTIVES:

Since 2014, Walgreens and WE have partnered together to empower youth and communities in the U.S. and in Kenya. With this shared mission, WE and Walgreens in 2019 came together to launch a program geared toward educators to support them by providing them with free tools and resources.

The WE Teachers program also considered the many ways teachers go above and beyond, including spending an average of $500 of their own money to stock their classrooms with school supplies to ensure their students have the tools to succeed.

Together with back-to-school supplier partners, Walgreens committed to donating $5 million to the ME to WE Foundation to fund the development of the WE Teachers program, which took place from July 21 through Sept. 7. The new program, WE Teachers, was a first national education campaign for Walgreens.

Our primary objectives of the campaign were to:

1. Deliver a compelling program that celebrates America’s teachers and empowers them to be their very best in the classroom
2. Increase sales of participating back-to-school products at Walgreens (the support of suppliers in turn supported Walgreens commitment to fund the development of the WE Teachers).
3. Build brand awareness for WE Teachers, Walgreens and ME to WE (primary audiences: parents/consumers and teachers)

Strategy and Execution

Program Elements:

WE Teachers free, online modules: Recognizing that teachers need resources to tackle the changing societal challenges their students face, Walgreens and the ME to WE Foundation created free resources to help educators address issues, such as youth violence, poverty, issues related to diversity and inclusion, bullying, and mental health and wellbeing. To inform the modules, Walgreens and the ME to WE Foundation collaborated with Mental Health America.

WE Teachers Award: Walgreens and the ME to WE Foundation encouraged consumers to nominate deserving educators who go above and beyond to receive a WE Teachers Award. Each recipient will receive a $500 Walgreens gift card to purchase classroom supplies (1,000+ awards are available in the 2019-20 school year).

An online hub: The hub can be accessed through weteachers.org and is a place for teachers to find educational resources, modules and connect and collaborate with each other.

A retail component: In shopping at Walgreens for back-to-school, customers supported Walgreens’ effort to support teachers through their purchases, including in their purchase of ME to WE products (developed by the WE organization). Consumers could also show their support for this initiative via the purchase of ME to WE Proud Supporter brands. At check-out, shoppers could also buy specially wrapped Hershey Give Education emoji chocolate bars.

Strategies:

Micro and macro-influencer campaigns: Fostering authenticity and encouraging personalization, Walgreens conducted an influencer campaign with diverse moms from around the country.

• • Micro-influencer campaign:  We worked with 80+ influencers from diverse backgrounds to share their stories of amazing teachers and to elicit the same passionate stories from their followers.
• Macro-influencer engagement: We selected Tia Mowry, actress/celebrity mom, as our lead influencer for her connection to the cause and experience working on education programs.

• Partnership with Upworthy: Walgreens and Upworthy developed an original “Hero video,” social cutdowns and three original articles, highlighting a teacher’s experience to illustrate the critical role teachers play in students’ lives and in our communities. Results:

• 7+ million total social impressions
• 124 percent increase in awareness of Walgreens WE Teachers program
• 441,000 Hero video views
• 25,700 total social engagements
• Social media and Influencer campaign: A social and PR campaign executed by WE and Walgreens. WE provided 30 social posts and 16 emails, with 4 of the emails being in Spanish to reach as many people as possible.

• Track Your Impact: WE leveraged their Track Your Impact platform to provide a transparent look at how Walgreens was impacting teachers across America. Track Your Impact is a cause-based marketing platform that allows consumers to see how each Proud Supporter brand supported the WE Teachers campaign. The WE team published 15 content pieces on the platform, highlighting teachers  and how WE Teachers will impact  their classrooms.

  National broadcast:WE Teachers was amplified through the 2019 WE Day broadcast that aired nationwide on ABC on August 9th and was promoted on WE’s social channels. The WE Teachers program was promoted through three vignettes during the broadcast.

Results

Results:

• Sales at Walgreens increased from the end of July to early September timeframe significantly in comparison to prior years.
• The program has been renewed for 2020!
• Total sales of ME to WE Back to School licensed products increased by 19% compared to 2018 and increased 8.6% during the week of the WE Day Broadcast
• Brand awareness of WE Teachers and ME to WE brand increased from 3% to 6%. The figure was obtained from IPSOS.
• 4.5X WE impressions achieved vs. Forecast (16M)
• The macro and micro-influencer campaign earned 34.8 million impressions on social media and in the news:
• The special achieved 2.8M broadcast viewers and 1.8 million impressions via Earned Media. Additionally, on the commercial side, there was an increase of 15k Hershey bars sold the week after broadcast.

To date, WE has been able to track the following results and engagement with the cause:

• WE Teachers Award:
  • 6,402 applications; 5,506 award nominations
  • In the first 6 weeks of the program, WE and Walgreens  exceeded our benchmark of 5,000 applications and nominations for year 1 of the program.
  • 4,541 WE Teacher module downloads
  • 2,052 Teacher training participation (through in person or online trainings)
  • 427,025 teachers reached (of 500,000 benchmark for this school year)
    • Numerical data capture when no contact info is provided (Facebook live impressions, educational partnership exposure etc.)
  • 29,273 teachers engaged (of 50,000 benchmark for this school year)
    • When a lead is more deeply engaged and provides their contact information

Media